Housing unaffordability and mental health: dynamics across age and tenure
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(Published version)
Date
2024
Authors
Arundel, R.
Li, A.
Baker, E.
Bentley, R.
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Journal article
Citation
International Journal of Housing Policy, 2024; 24(1):44-74
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Rowan Arundel, Ang Li, Emma Baker and Rebecca Bentley
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Abstract
This paper examines changing trends in housing affordability in the Netherlands and its link to mental health across tenures and age cohorts. Using the LISS panel dataset over 11 years (2008 to 2019), we assess trends in the prevalence of unaffordable housing and subsequently examine its relationship with psychological wellbeing based on ‘Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5)’ responses. Our research shows a clear overall increase in the experience of unaffordable housing. Increases are, however, starkly differentiated by tenure and age, occurring almost entirely within the rental sector and disproportionately affecting younger adults. We also find a clear link between living in housing that is unaffordable and poorer mental health scores, and this association is particularly strong among renters and younger people. The results underscore how changes in housing systems have intensified housing precarity, specifically within the rental sector, and reveal how this may contribute to worsening mental health at the population level and shape tenure-based health inequalities.
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Published online: 04 Sep 2022
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© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.